Fireblight question

Fireblight question

Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:51 am

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

Fireblight is a scourge out here in California. Lots of folks packed into tiny suburb lots with fruit trees that don't properly care for them. Every couple of years we get blooms that kill off younger trees.

Anyway, we just moved into an area that does not appear to have much of a history of fireblight. We are worried about bringing it with us as we transfer some of our plants.

We want to bring a number of our non-fireblight-susceptible plants to our new property. These include outdoor orchids, herbs like mint & oregano, ornamental trees like Japanese maples and sago palms, and fruiting trees like figs, peach, and nectarine. The worry is that even though these plants do not themselves get fireblight, that the spores may be in the soil that would be coming with them.

How realistic is this risk? The property we just bought has an acre and a half and we plan on planting a number of fruit trees next year that are susceptible to fireblight and we don't want to contaminate the area. On the other hand, an number of the plants we have now, especially the trees, have been with us a long time and we don't want to abandon them unnecessarily.

What do you all think? How much of a risk is it to transport plants that come from an area that has fireblight (and indeed we've lost a few trees to it) but themselves are not susceptible to the disease? Is there anything we can do to the plants/soil we want to transport that will reduce this risk? All of our plants are in pots and cans.

Maybe I'm not reading your post right, but the overriding question that came to my mind is WHY are you planting fireblight susceptible fruit trees???

What I mean is why not select cultivars that are resistant to fireblight?I don't have anywhere the size of orchard space you do, but my neighborhood is rife with fire blight. So far, I have Enterprise, Arkansas Black, and Pristine apple trees (Pristine isn't nearly as resistant, but so far, seems to be doing OK even though it's within visual distance from a neighbor's fire blight ridden ornamental pear). For pears, I planted Magness and Seckel. I tried Tyson, but it didn't make it. Sweet Sixteen apple didn't make it either and I complained to the nursery that sold it claiming robustness and they gave me a refund -- well, a store credit.

I'm thinking of getting a Liberty apple next.

I would imagine a certain amount of fire blight bacteria is bound to be present in the transported soil and on the branches of the trees, but some good compost and AACT spray might help mitigate the bad bacteria. Maybe the 10% Milk Solution (lactobacilus culture) spray might do some good too to outcompete in the phytosphere.

Third, become familiar with the Sunset Western Garden Book (if you aren't already ), which contains such wisdom as:

"The most trouble-free pear-growing regions are warm, dry areas of California and Oregon, where commercial orchards are located. Fireblight can be a serious problem; in problem-prone areas, fireblight-resistant varieties offer the best chance of success."

The pomaceous trees (apples and pears) are most susceptible, according to Sunset; why not start anew with resistant cultivars? There are some incredible nurseries in Alameda County; surely some of them have resistant cultivars available, whether of apples, pears, or pear-apples.